Chad Stewart's Lake City Florida Real Estate Blog.

Florida State Wide Open House Even

2010-02-27T11:06:00.000-05:00

Open House

Florida Open House Event April 10-11

2010-02-27T11:04:00.002-05:00

Statewide Open House Event April 10-11. Come visit me in Lake City, FL

Housing Tax Credits at a Glance

2010-02-27T10:19:00.001-05:00

http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com/glance.php

Short Sale Sellers - Read the Paperwork

2010-02-24T10:59:00.001-05:00

Attention Short Sale Sellers... Read the Fine Print..

http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?id=233552

Flood Zone Mapping & Information

2010-02-22T10:48:00.002-05:00

Finding FEMA flood zone maps for real estate properties has become easier & easier.

I wanted all to know that for the counties around there in North Florida its even easier than ever.

First get the parcel # of the property, land or home you are looking at.

Second, go to http://www.srwmdfloodreport.com/Welcome.htm Click the county are inquiring about, click go, and type in or past the parcel number you are interested in. This will map the property with a nice aerial map & highlited your parcel. I will show any flood zones in the are. You can also click the legend button to see what everythign means.

If the property is in a flood zone, this does not mean the end of it. Flood insurance is very affordable, usually costing only around $300 per year. Ask a Realtor for more details.

Here are the county property appraisers sites along with the corresponding flood zone site.

Columbia County - Lake City, FL - Fort White, FL

http://g2.columbia.floridapa.com/

http://www.srwmdfloodreport.com/Columbia.htm

Suwannee County - Live Oak, FL - Branford, FL

http://www.suwanneepa.com/

http://www.srwmdfloodreport.com/Suwannee.htm

Hamilton County - Jasper, FL - Jennings, FL - White Springs, FL

http://www.hamiltonpa.com/

http://www.srwmdfloodreport.com/Hamilton.htm

Union County - Lake Butler, FL - Providence, FL

http://g2.union.floridapa.com/index.asp?

http://www.srwmdfloodreport.com/Union.htm

The FEMA - Suwannee River map site also has the following counties: Alachua, Bradford, Columbia, Dixie, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Lafayette, Levy, Madison, Suwannee, Taylor, Union.

Lake City FL Real Estate Listing - New Video Tour Just Posted

2010-02-11T15:39:00.003-05:00

Great property. This is a1,776 sq ft concrete block stucco house with some nice acreage. 4 acres is fenced for animals or horses, with small farm shelter. Nice trees on front part of property.

House is open style floor plan, upgraded Corian kitchen countertops. Big back room could be used for 3rd bedroom or den with access to back patio. Price has just been reduced. This place is well worth the visit.
.. Property is just over the border in Suwannee county, but has a Lake City, FL address.

Custom Home In Preserve at Laurel Lake - Great Value

2010-02-02T09:13:00.003-05:00

We now have the Cambridge model available in the Preserve at Laurel Lakes. This is a great value at $194,900 customized to your preferences. 3 bedroom, 2 bath. This comes out to an amazing price of only $106.50 per sq ft. Quality home by Isaac Construction.

Download flyer..

2010-02-02T01:03:00.001-05:00

testing 3456

Walk Away or Short Sale

2010-01-29T15:18:00.002-05:00

NOW YOU KNOW
Banks pursuing payback from walkaways
Increasingly aggressive mortgage lenders seek money from former owners who had a short sale or walked away. Read more.

Short sales are no easy deal. Be sure you know what the terms are when you sell, many times there be not be many options. But so you know, many Banks are not looking too favorably on Short sales that are more walk aways than real hardship issues.

FHA incentive to buy Now!

2010-01-22T10:22:00.003-05:00

If you were planning to go the FHA loan route when buying your house, you might want to move quickly...

The Federal Housing Administration is strenthening thier reserves... but what this means for the average homeowner is tighter criteria & higher PMI rates...

MIP, mortgage insurance premium will increase.
Higher Credit score required
Seller concessions lowered from 6% to 3%

Just another reason for buyers to make their move NOW!
Here are some more details on it... or contact one of our preferred lenders now to get prequalified... For all other real estate questions for the Lake City area, feel free to call or email.
http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?id=230552

Best Month to Sell your House

2010-01-13T16:38:00.001-05:00

Do you want to sell a home in 2010? You may want to think January instead of June.. With the new tax credit expiring in April, you will probably see more early year home buyers vs the May-June market.

New Listing! 944 acre regional development potential.

2010-01-09T16:57:00.003-05:00

One of a kind property at the intersection of Interstate 10 and Interstate 75, here in Lake City, this 944 acre is prime long term development potential. With the expansion of the port in Jacksonville and distribution and overall development potential of north central Florida, this property is worth a serious look.

All the details are at a new site launched called http://www.flahub.com/ Welcome to the new HUB of distribution & industrial growth in Florida.

Homebuyer and Home Buyers Tax Credit $8,000.

2010-01-09T11:33:00.000-05:00

Greetings,

2010 is here! As you may know the tax credit is back again with $8,000 for first time Home Buyers, and now also qualified REPEAT BUYERS can receive a credit of up to $6,500 for homes purchased between November 7, 2009 and April 30, 2010.

There are a few items that you need to make sure you qualify for, so I have attached some useful documents for you to print out & read, but this is very much real money. And its a tax credit not tax deduction. If you file your taxes individually, and you make over $125,000 per year the tax credit phases out. Anything less and you get the full credit. Over $225,000 for married couples filing jointly it begins to phase out.

Downloads:

US now renters' market.

2010-01-08T15:51:00.001-05:00

U.S. now a renters' market

Reis Inc. says the apartment vacancy rate ended 2009 at 8%, and rents dipped 3%, led by cities that once had brisk growth. Read more. Click the title link.

Great Rates Today! Check this out from preferred lender

2010-01-08T00:40:00.000-05:00

Columbia County FL School Zone Maps

2009-12-21T19:14:00.001-05:00

Columbia County School Zone Maps!! Nice. Been looking for this. :)
You can check out the maps to find out what school your future home is located in here in Lake City, FL. Columbia County, FL School Zone....

http://www.columbia.k12.fl.us/schoolzones.html

Natonal Property Values Chart

2009-12-09T10:24:00.004-05:00

This is pretty interesting, if you draw a average trend line from prior decades, it still equals a slow average value increase. These charts really show the abnormality of the recent boom & then crase...

2009-12-09T10:22:00.000-05:00

Short sales: Playing by the new rules
The U.S. Treasury hopes to speed transactions under new rules, but details count. Realtors should understand the process. Read more.

Click here to view the file with all the details... lots of pages...

New Mapping Links - Lake City FL Real Estate Maps

2009-12-05T10:37:00.004-05:00

Here are a few more of my mapping & data integration test today..

Check out the bing map here...
http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=30.163284737060415~-82.6371002196172&lvl=12&sty=r&cid=D08284CF0AD70187!1791

More Geocoding on some higher priced ranged homes in Lake City, FL area...
http://www.batchgeocode.com/map/?i=b79bff4f84e7f4095431ced95068b027

More Google mappping options for real estate by Chad Stewart...
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=30.190541,-82.65976&spn=0.208321,0.301094&z=12&msid=104192750246703441241.000479fd0a1c26b45d8b0

Here are some great houses!!
http://www.batchgeocode.com/map/?i=fd10240ef068cf35ba12d2e70393d960

Nice listings of Lake City FL properties on Google...
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&output=georss&msid=104192750246703441241.000479fd0a1c26b45d8b0

Mapping & Data Tools

2009-12-05T10:01:00.005-05:00

There are some very cool tools for exporting your listings to google maps, google base, msn maps etc...

If you want to get all your listings, or even several hundred listings from your MLS on the maps & web for all to see., check out these steps.. (extensive knowlege of excel, tab delimited text files, google earth, general data management required)

First export all your data files, etc into an excel file & save as a tab delimted.

Using this website at http://www.batchgeocode.com/

It will automatically add a latitude & longitute to each listing... you can then save as a KML Google Earth file, or save as a webpage like this.. http://www.batchgeocode.com/map/?i=d583d2a021ed09c64ded46c4383dfd15

Then in Google maps you can import the KML file to create a cool page with all your listings mapped..

or save as another rss feed, webpage,etc... http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&output=georss&msid=104192750246703441241.000479fc0d5ef072a01c1

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=104192750246703441241.000479fc0d5ef072a01c1&z=10

View Lake City FL Homes & Real Estate in a larger map

2009-12-04T18:06:00.003-05:00

Good Florida overview--website
http://www.fldashboard.com/

2009-12-04T18:06:00.001-05:00

Take a look at the affordability index...it is off the charts at 166.

This means the average buyer has 166% of the necessary income to buy a median priced home.
http://bit.ly/91pRDL

2009-12-01T18:14:00.000-05:00

http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?id=227866

this looks like it will make the short sale process much easier!

2009-12-01T17:44:00.001-05:00

http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?id=227870

A good report from the "always optimistic" Lawrence Yun

2009-11-07T13:38:00.001-05:00

Obama signs bill: Buyer tax credit extended
It's now law: Buyers get 5 more months to sign a contract, 7 more months to close; Fla. downpayment aid program extended; some move-up buyers get $6,500. Read more.